Quadrigacx Ceo Supposedly Dies in India and Had Sole Access to $190 Million of Private Keys; Exchange Remained Open for Deposits for Over a Month After His Death, Users Cry Scam

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One of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in Canada, QuadrigaCX, has been beset by a series of woes that have culminated in an intractable situation for users.

First 25.7 million Canadian dollars were seized from QuadrigaCX by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CBIC). This caused indefinite withdrawal delays for some QuadrigaCX users. QuadrigaCX apparently won a court case to return the money seized by the CBIC, but QuadrigaCX is having a difficult time getting the money into its bank account. While all of this is going on, the CEO and founder of QuadrigaCX, Gerald W. Cotten, supposedly died in India on Dec. 9 2018.

QuadrigaCX did not publish a list of cold wallet addresses, and users are requesting that QuadrigaCX publish a list of addresses to end suspicion. Users are looking for the cold wallet addresses to see if they are truly inactive.

Further, the details and timing of Cotten’s death are suspicious. Apparently the death happened on Dec. 9, which was right in the middle of the legal battle with CIBC. The supposed cause of death is Crohn’s disease, which is usually not fatal.

Cotten was only 30 years old. A death certificate was attached to the court document, but it is not an official death certificate. It is a statement of death from a funeral home. QuadrigaCX users called the funeral home and did not receive an answer. The funeral home’s database did not have a record of Cotten’s death.

Additionally, the official QuadrigaCX statement on Cotten’s death says he went to India to build an orphanage. This statement was deleted from the QuadrigaCX site, but it has been saved by an internet archive. It does not make much sense that Cotten was building an orphanage when he was in the middle of a court battle, while QuadrigaCX customers were suffering due to fiat withdrawal delays.

A cryptocurrency exchange like QuadrigaCX should have had protocol in place to recover cold wallets in the event that Cotten died, especially since Cotten was traveling all the way to India. Many users point out that if Cotten was dying from Crohn’s disease that he would have time to transfer ownership of the cold wallets before death.

Another major issue is that QuadrigaCX remained opened for deposits of fiat and cryptocurrency well after Cotten’s death, despite exchange admins having the knowledge that the cold wallets had become inaccessible. QuadrigaCX should have suspended deposits immediately upon notice of Cotten’s death instead of waiting over a month.

With this scenario unfolding, It is no wonder that numerous customers are calling QuadrigaCX a scam. Crypto.IQ will update on this situation when more definitive evidence is posted.